Timeline of History

Charles Darwin is born in Shrewsbury, England. Charles Darwin's came from a family interested in biology and the natural sciences - his father was Robert Darwin, a physician, and his grandfather was Erasmus Darwin, a poet, philosopher, and naturalist.

Darwin originally wanted to study medicine, but couldn't handle the sight of surgeries performed without anesthesia. His second choice was the clergy, but after earning his degree from Cambridge University he started focusing more on naturalism.

He then accepts the position of naturalist on the HMS Beagle which set sail for the South Pacific at the end of 1831. Charles Darwin will become famous (or, in some circles, infamous) for developing a scientific theory of the evolution of life via natural selection - the idea for which became established during his voyage on the Beagle.

While Darwin's theory of evolution has been heavily modified and added to in the light of evidence over the years, the theory of evolution used and studied today by biologists remains, in many respects, the idea proposed by Charles Darwin in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species.